Bathing your dog

Always some interesting people to meet when you're a groomer.

Today the owner (who also is the receptionist) came back to tell us all some delightful information. Earlier in the day we had talked about people that don't brush their dogs, and how people think their dogs don't need to be brushed, have dental cleanings, etc, because they "didn't in the wild." Obviously that's a conversation for another day.

But anywho...

A first time customer came to pick up her lab mix thing that came to us for a bath and nails. Before she left she was talking about her dog to the shop owner. As she walked out the door she commented that this dog was the first she had ever owned that "needed" a bath.

???

We all got a pretty good laugh out of it and pondered how many dogs she had owned and how smelly they all were. :(

So this brought me to my post about bathing your dog.

Your dog needs baths. In the 1600s or whatever time period you would like to think of when "dogs weren't bathed very often" you must also remember that PEOPLE did not bathe very often. No that does not mean that your dog needs a bath whenever you have one, but it is okay to do more often than you would think.

I once worked at a shop that would tell people that under NO circumstances should they wash their dog more than every 3 weeks because it would dry out the coat. This is incorrect.

 Show dogs are bathed A LOT, some even daily. They use mild shampoos and conditioner (very important). When you use shampoo on your dog, you strip the natural oils from the coat. This is not bad as they DO come back. Depending on the dog (because of oily coat, dry, quality of food), the time it takes to replenish the oils varies from several days to several weeks. To help put the oils back into the coat, conditioner is used. This, among other things, is how show dogs maintain amazing coats.

Hooray important things are done.

On another note, I bathed a friends dog today at her house. It was the first time I've ever done an in-home grooming. We had no table or restraint system. Just a dining room floor and my friend holding her dog. It was interesting considering Sampson is quite particular about what he will let you do without a fight.

I took a few pictures but he was clean and pretty and prancing around and wouldn't be still. This is the best I could get. :)

I know-it's super blurry. But he has such a sweet face. :D